Hello, friends! Did you have a great Easter break? It probably went by way too fast, and now we're in full-on countdown mode. T-minus 24 days for me! We ate a decadent quiche on Easter, as per our tradition. It's delicious, but soooo rich that I only make it once a year. At least I got a long walk in before we ate and the rain arrived. Then I got … [Read more...]

Last week I wrote about teaching my elementary students how to write a summary. I discussed the graphic organizer I created and my initial lessons done with the whole class and in small groups. This week my focus is on how I continued teaching this strategy, and eventually how I extended it across the curriculum.
Writing a Summary in Pairs
When … [Read more...]

Writing a summary from text is an important process skill elementary students need to acquire. With regard to both literature and information text, the CCSS requires students to identify themes or main ideas and summarize the information. Like many teachers, I've been reading the standards listed for my 4th grade students in the Common Core and … [Read more...]